Macau | Increase in spending on staff of 140.8 pct since 2010 raises concern

Macau (MNA) – The increase of expenditure on staff in the public sector has increased by 140.8 per cent since 2010, from MOP 9.2 billion (US$1.14 billion) to MOP22.2 billion, according to a document on the Legislative Assembly (AL) website regarding the review of the implementation of the 2017 budget.

The situation in certain institutions did not prove to be much better, with staff costs in 2010 for those institutions comprising of MOP354,969,888 which had increased to MOP1,403,867,700 for the period of 2010 to 2017, which represents an annual increase of around 11.9 per cent.

According to the document, the Macau SAR Government has defended itself regarding the increases, citing the fact that in 2010, there were only seven functioning government departments in the special administrative region.

In addition, there were increases attributed to the more money going towards the Social Security Fund.

From 2017, the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) had made provisions of more than MOP1 million going toward retirement benefits for staff, which had also gone towards the cost of hiring new people.

An increase in the numbers of retired workers had also gone toward pushing the costs up, with some 1,000 staff recorded as joining the public workforce in 2017 as opposed to 2016.

With the larger number of retired workers, staff growth due to hiring of new workers had also went towards the numbers, in particular, the areas of security workers and cleaners.

The security sector has led to the hiring of more than 800 staff, including trainees, prison correctional officers, customs workers, and policemen.

The health sector also had more vacancies to fill during the period due to the operation of 24-hour medical units in hospitals.